Original subtitles

He's our baby, but he's a bully.

We just heard a hiss. Yeah.

What is it that you're doing?

We could be dealing with territorial aggression.

What are you doing?

Looks sexual to me.

Daisy's causing Cooper a lot of stress.

She would push him out of the way and finish his...

He's afraid of her. Cooper just recently got diagnosed with early kidney

disease. In like two years, he went from 11 pounds, 6 ounces to 8 pounds.

Is he eating?

No.

This looks like fun.

That's Max, I assume. That is Max. It's hard to miss him. Max is part of the

reading program at the Lake Bluff Library.

The goal of this program is to encourage kids to read and also encourage kids

that might struggle reading.

Whoa!

Holy! I'm Jackson Galaxy.

What the hell, man?

The animal behavior that guardians call when they're dealing with a difficult

cat. Sometimes I wish that I didn't have her.

Damn.

I'm out to prove that there is no such thing as a bad cat. Just a cat that

my help. This is fun.

I'm John. This is my wife, Mary.

We have four resident cats.

Baby, Lily, Mabel, and Ginger.

Also, we have foster kittens, and we have one long -term foster.

Great.

Baby is a sweetheart.

He's just friendly.

He greets you. He's very affectionate. He's our baby, but he's a bully.

Baby usually never attacks.

The cat's right in front of us. It's something that we hear, and then we

to it.

Baby, what did you do?

We have done things like isolating, keeping one cat in one room.

We also put a bell on his collar.

For a little while, we thought that was working, but not so much.

Baby has a fixation on our adult female cats.

Once they're about a year old, he starts chasing them.

laying on them, biting them, hurting them.

I've always said it's sexual.

It looks sexual to me.

What are you doing?

It's not fair for the other cats. You know, we're kind of putting them in that

situation, and I think it's not a good life in that sense.

She's afraid of you.

My biggest fear is this long -term foster that we have, Grace. She has

needs, and we need to keep her until she's about a year old, which is about

age that he starts attacking our other cats.

If Grace gets hurt, we won't be able to forgive ourselves.

If Jackson can't help us, we just don't know what to do because there's just too

much abuse and suffering going on with these cats.

Hi. Hi. How are you? I'm Jackson.

John. Nice to meet you. I'm Mary.

Mary, good to meet you guys.

I know we've got cat problems.

Yes, we do. We've got multiple cats.

Yes. And I also know we've got kittens in the house somewhere.

You're fostering, right? We are. We're fostering. Do you foster all the time?

Yeah, it's like a little revolving kitten door. And Baby is preying on the

kittens? No. We've seen so many kittens come in and out of our house, and Baby's

reaction, he could care less, that we feel very comfortable having kittens

around. Now, I don't see Baby.

With that said, baby not being here, can we go hang with kittens? Yes. I would

love to see some kittens. There's nothing wrong in my line of work with

business and pleasure. So I'm here to help baby, here to help John and Mary.

also here to get a kitten fix.

Kitten land.

Hello, my little one.

This one is just calling my name, so I'm just going to hang here. He was brought

in a couple of weeks ago.

He was such a little baby that they put her in a kennel with another.

full -grown cat, and she tried to nurse off of the cat.

And somebody wanted to adopt her, but she just wasn't old enough, so she

a foster.

I started fostering maybe a year and a half or two years ago. For me to go into

a shelter and see little baby kittens that need a foster or the worst might

happen, I was very quick to volunteer to foster.

So I think we've had about 30 kittens come through our house and find homes.

Let's unfortunately start talking about the trouble in paradise here.

In your opinion, it has nothing to do with the fact that you've got six little

kittens right now?

So is this as many as you would get at one time? We don't like to do more than

five or six. We like to do really two or three at a time. Right.

So knowing that you have five or six in the house, his behavior hasn't changed

at all? No. Baby, you can't get into the kitten room. Okay.

Usually foster kittens that are too young to be vaccinated are kept

from the older cats to help protect their sensitive immune systems. In this

case, it's also keeping them safe from baby, which is such a relief.

The first glimpse that things were not... All good with baby was when?

When Lily became about a year old, he started chasing her and putting all his

weight on her and biting her neck.

Did he follow through from there? Did he hump her? No, he didn't know what to

do. He would just jump on her, lay down on her, and bite her neck. And she would

just be helpless because she was about half the size of him.

Do you usually have to come break it up?

We'll run towards the spot where we hear it.

He automatically kind of like knows, and you'll see him just kind of run by us.

If we ever get close enough, we're yelling on the way there. We're like,

baby, you know, as we're walking towards him.

So I haven't even gotten close to, you know, him still actually doing it. I've

seen it when they didn't know I was there.

We hear it. We don't see it. So we don't really know what's going on. He started

doing it to Mabel once she grew up. And now we have Grace.

Grace is our long -term foster.

She was thrown from a moving car, and she can't run very well, and she can't

jump very well, and she can't see very well.

She's about seven months old, so she's going to be of age soon where Baby

preying on her. That's where we draw the line, and that's why we called you.

Baby hasn't gone for her yet. He hasn't. If he does, we have a big problem. We

have a big problem. Huge, huge problem. She can't get away.

There's clearly a reason that Baby goes after Kat.

Okay, and he's not going after kittens, okay.

But it's not like he's sitting there waiting for their first birthday to

on them.

Something else has to be at play here.

Normally, with mounting behavior, it's a pseudo -sexual behavior, but obviously

he's neutered, right?

Yes. How old was he when he got neutered, normally?

He was about four or five months.

Okay, so that knocks that out.

But there's always a chance that maybe he could be...

Crypt orchid. Crypt orchid is that one of his testicles never descended. He may

have a testicle up in his abdomen, so he's going to act like an intact male

because he still possibly has some trace of hormones going through his system.

And that's something that only a vet can tell us. So if I didn't show up here,

what would that look like? If he started to prey on Grace, what happens?

My heart would be broken if he did anything to hurt her. I mean, she can't

defend herself.

For a baby to do anything to raise. I think it would have been, you would have

had to give her to somebody else. It would have been forced, basically, that.

Give him or give her? No, give her.

Who goes to another home?

Well, you know, a friend of mine loves babies.

She's our pet sitter, and she's thinking about adopting a cat. I think, well,

maybe that's the solution is giving my friend a baby. I think that would be

something we would consider.

What's your reaction to that? I mean.

What would it mean if you had to get baby rehomed?

I mean... For

me, it's not a

good solution.

It's not something that I would be interested in doing.

I don't know if we're dealing with aggression that's bad enough that we

think about rehoming a cat, but I know that Mary's thinking about it and John

has thought about it, so it has to be that bad. I think it's time to leave

kitten land for the time being and go and say hi to the rest of the cats in

house, okay?

Let's go.

Hello, baby boy.

Hello, baby boy.

Baby's just sitting there in the middle of everything.

Hello, my friend.

He takes all the petting I can dish out. He doesn't seem to be getting

overstimulated. He seems to be a very social cat.

Very, yeah.

He's a very social boy. He loves being the center of attention, but not seeing

any signs of territorial insecurity from him. It is a weird dichotomy that you

have this absolute sweetheart who then turns into making

everyone's life miserable.

John and Mary don't have all the facts.

when it comes to baby and his attacks, and I haven't seen any of the bad

behavior myself, so I really need to gather more clues so I can get to the

of the problem.

So, guys, we didn't see the other four cats in this house. I only saw one cat.

Yeah, they tended to hide in the bathroom or in the closet because of

That's obviously not healthy for anybody, right?

I also think there's a lot of assumptions being made without proper

evidence.

I can't offer up a behavioral diagnosis right now because I haven't seen cats

together, so I can gauge their behavior around one another. So I need to draw

out information, and that's going to be their homework. With baby, we could be

dealing with play aggression.

We could be dealing with territorial aggression.

There's a lot we don't know. This leads me to the homework.

Detective work.

I'm going to leave you with some cameras.

And we are going to see the comings and goings. Having video surveillance is

going to get me all the information I need visually.

The second part of this homework is going to the vet.

I'd like your vet to check for testosterone levels in the blood. Any

testosterone is going to tell us something. I'm secretly excited that it

be that easy, that we take the baby to the vet, have a blood test, get an exam,

and we find out that's the situation, but not getting our hopes up.

Goodbye, buddy boy. We will be talking very soon.

I'm going to bank on it. Bye.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Kira. I have two cats, Cooper and Daisy. Cooper and Daisy are

litter mates. When they were little, they would sleep in a big pile, like a

kitten pile, and it was amazing.

Now, they seem to not get along.

A couple months ago, Cooper was diagnosed with early -stage kidney

for some reason.

Daisy's become a real bully.

She would push him out of the way and finish his food.

Daisy, no.

She picks on Cooper.

She will take a swipe at him as she walks by, and he's afraid of her.

It's not just the fighting thing. I also love to destroy my furniture.

Curtains shredded, throw pillows shredded, sofa clawed, box spring

anything.

Fabric, they ripped to shreds. It is completely frustrating.

This is my brand new sofa, and this, you can see, are little cat claw marks.

It's already being scratched.

Right now, I keep the cats in the back half of the apartment just to contain

destruction on the sofa.

Daisy!

I really need Jackson's help because I don't want to lock them in the back half

of an apartment.

I want to do everything in my power for my cats to have the best life possible.

I'm at a loss because I don't know how to solve it. I don't know what to do.

Hey. Hi. How are you, Jackson?

Kira. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you as well.

So we got two cats. Yes, Cooper and Daisy.

Cooper just recently got diagnosed with early kidney disease.

So in like two years, he went from 11 pounds, six ounces to eight pounds, four

ounces. I put him on renal care cat food. And as the weeks went on, he was

eating less and less and not drinking water at all. I feed them separately.

Daisy's always been a voracious eater.

So she eats really, really quickly and then eats Cooper's food.

Cooper eats in the bedroom. Daisy gobbles her food down instantaneously

screams outside the bedroom door.

And I think he's really stressed out by her scratching and yelling at the door.

And does that lead him to not eat?

Yes. Okay, so that's going on. Has their relationship changed because of all

this? Yes.

She bullies him.

But they never did that before?

No, they used to actually sleep together, you know, in a cuddle. Well,

That's Daisy.

Where is Cooper right now?

He's probably in the bedroom.

Okay. And that's so abnormal.

That's not him?

No. He went from, like, gregarious and friendly to sleeping, and he just

seem happy.

So you can trace his decline in sociability to his disease.

I think so.

Yeah. Cooper might have been a social cat at one point, but the bottom line is

not feeling well is going to cause you to withdraw.

The other problem is my cats scratch all my furniture.

I used to have a fabric sofa, and within two months, the wood frame and the

stuffing's out. This is new furniture now.

Yes.

Well, how brave of you. I know. You had a fabric couch that got beat up in terms

of scratching, and you went out and got yourself a...

Nice looking, leathery looking couch.

Well, I work in interior design. I'm just not ready to give up on living in a

nice space.

And then they started in on it. So I shut that door and they're locked in the

back half of the apartment.

They don't have access to this? That's a good chunk of house that they don't

have access to. They have scratching posts.

Where? In the bedroom.

I understand Kira's frustration.

I mean, if my job was an interior designer and all the furniture I had in

house was being completely torn to shreds, yeah, I'd be a little

too. That said, let's go find Cooper. Okay. Let's go see what he's up to. Now,

one thing says I have a cat, and locking your cats out of half of the house

because of your couch, that is the definition of an unsustainable long

solution. So he has lost two -plus pounds. He still looks good.

Cooper's normal weight for seven years was 11 pounds, 6 ounces, and he weighs

8 pounds, 5 ounces now.

Oh, he's pretty dehydrated.

Do you know how to judge for that?

No. So to test for dehydration, all you have to do, take a little piece of

scruff and then let go of it. And you see how it doesn't just snap back?

See, it does that. That lets you know that he's dehydrated a little bit.

Now, look.

Kidney disease is not something that's reversible.

It's totally manageable.

I've had one cat. I've been managing it for over 10 years.

The problem is that cats get over 80 % of their hydration through their food.

So if he's not eating enough, he's going to stay dehydrated.

needs to get food in him to keep his weight up, but that also gives him his

hydration, which will also make sure that he's got water going through his

system, which will address the renal failure. I want to go through your

ritual with these guys.

Let's feed Daisy, let's feed Cooper, and let me see what happens, all right?

Okay. It's not Cooper's renal diagnosis that changed everything in his house. It

was the prescription diet.

Now he has to eat separately from his sister. Now he's not eating the way he

used to. He's losing. weight and he's getting dehydrated in the process.

the problem here.

Come on.

Coop. I hear cajoling. You gotta eat a little bit.

You gotta eat.

How's it going in there, Kira? Is he eating?

No. Is he even going near it?

No.

Now what do we do?

So sure enough, Daisy scarfs that food down. It is gone before you can say

Cooper.

Daisy rushes that door. She's pawing underneath.

She's making that rattling sound. And I can imagine, it's not a really relaxing

meal, is it?

Wow.

Whoa.

Okay, then.

You've got to put yourself in Cooper's paws right now. He's being separated

the rest of the family with a bowl of food that he doesn't like. He's got Kira

hovering over the top of him saying, please eat. He's got Daisy at the door.

The energy in the home has completely shifted. The relationships in the home

completely shifted. This crazy dance that's going on around food, it's got to

stop now.

Hey. So, Daisy did exactly what... We thought Daisy would do. Yes. She gobbled

down her food and went for the second course, which she couldn't get to. So on

your side of the door, what was going on? Not a bite.

Not a bite.

Watched the door the whole time. Which we cannot have.

He's got to.

get water in them, you've got to eat.

Kira's intentions are good, but what she's doing is that classic case of

your finger in the leaky wall. Now you've got this leak and this leak.

going to run out of fingers eventually.

We've got to talk about real problem solving here. Ready for some homework?

I am.

Good. We've got a couple things that we're dealing with. This is the thing

chronic renal failure in cats.

Everyone has an opinion about it. I'm going to give you my opinion, and that's

all it is. It's based on my experience and what I know about it. Your first

piece of homework is... I want you to feed your cats a wet, grain -free diet.

believe in a high -protein diet, whether they're thick or well. And I don't see

any reason to go away from that.

I'm a big fan of raw food. I think the cats should be eating exactly what they

would be eating out there. And if they were eating what they were meant to eat,

they wouldn't develop half of these problems.

Of course, genetics plays a part in this.

The number one thing that you have to be concerned about with your cat is water

going through his body at all times. Chronic renal failure cats need a

flow of water through their system.

I want you to take hot water, mix it in with your food, and make it into almost

a stew.

That will unlock the smell. It'll be attractive to him and to her, but that

you make sure they're getting that water as well.

Now, the reason these two cats are being separated in the first place that

started this whole crazy routine was because Cooper gets his prescription

so the cats are on two separate diets. It's my opinion that doesn't have to

happen anymore. I believe it's okay to be fed the same food as long as it

achieves the ends that we need.

I want you to find out everything that you can find out about chronic renal

failure, about how to combat it in order to give him a longer life, which I

think would be really good for you.

Now we can start breaking down the dance to be separated, to have doors closed,

and to have youths dressing over the top of it. So go back to eating at the same

time. With the addition of this, I want you to get what's called a slow feeder

bowl. You basically paste the food to these ridges. They have to work at it.

It's going to slow down Daisy in a big way.

That's going to completely reduce the friction between your two cats.

This isn't a territorial battle. This is...

One cat being really hungry, really food motivated. The other one being a little

distracted, a little scared by what's going on. All that stress, that's

them to go off on each other a little bit. That'll stop.

Great. Now, scratching.

You're an interior designer, so I think this is a really great assignment for

you. I want you to become a catification designer.

Catification.

is the art of designing for both human and cat.

This technique that I use is based on that. It's called the no -yes technique.

So for no, what we're going to do is double -sided tape on the furniture, but

right next to it is going to be something where there's the yes. So that

scratching post right here.

No, yes, right?

By the bed. No, yes.

The other problem we got, now these guys are locked in the back. They don't get

to come up front here.

That's not a solution.

Open the doors so that they can just stay out of each other's way. By giving

Kira the homework of becoming a catification interior designer, I am

completely against her normal training, which is, of course, very human -based.

She's got to learn what that compromise looks like in a designerly way. It's

going to be tough on her, man, but there is plenty of evidence out there that

catification can work for both parties. I'm excited for you because I know that

when I come back here, you will be an expert. I can feel it.

All right, I'm out. I'm not.

I'm in love with the notion of cat trees out in my living room, but I'm going to

do the homework because it's really important to me that my cats are happy.

Thank you. Bye.

Baby!

I'm here for my second visit with Baby. The last time I was here, Baby was

holding the entire house hostage, or at least the feline part of the house.

It's a bad situation all the way around, but one with not very many answers. And

the answers is what I'm hoping to get today.

How are things with you guys?

Good. Yeah?

Good. Yeah. Okay. So let's take a look at your homework. And here we go.

We've just arrived at Valencia Vet where we're going to see the doctor and ask

about his primate card.

So we got the blood test back from the vet. Baby does not have a testosterone

issue. His testosterone was less than...

0 .1%. He is a neutered boy.

So we were trying to do our detective work and rule out the fact that he might

have been cryptorchid, and that has been ruled out.

Baby does not have testosterone.

That would have been a really handy explanation for everything that's going

here, but the question remains, why is baby acting out the way he is?

And now he's sitting up here, and this is kind of a sign that we have that

like, looking for mischief.

So most of everything that we've seen happens up there.

This spot where he is right now, this place that I call the crow's nest, right

at the top of those stairs, covered.

Nobody gets anywhere without baby say -so.

So this is a problem area.

Moving on.

This is kind of a normal day.

So baby's here. I know he's up to something.

There's Mabel. There's Gingy. And there's Grace.

There's Lily.

I just feel so bad for the other cats because they're scared of Baby.

Do they hide all the time now where they didn't before?

Yeah.

We got Baby sitting in this power position the same as he was upstairs.

Cat Chess. Baby is calculating the moves of his opponents, and he is thinking

three steps ahead.

Check. Check.

Checkmate. And all the rest of the cats know this. They're walking as if

something's about to attack them. And guess what? They're right.

There was just a situation, and he was full -on mounting Ginger and biting her

neck. And she was just sitting there, fine with it. It was really weird.

It's very easy to sexualize what's going on between Ginger and Baby.

Really, it is about dominance and submission.

Baby chases the other cats because he gets that thrill of the hunt.

He mounts Ginger because he can, he does, and he gets that satisfaction of

dominance, and Ginger takes it.

Baby just jumped at Grace, and she hissed at him. He didn't lunge at her.

pounced like he wanted to play with her, but she hissed right at him. I don't

think Grace is afraid.

Good, because Grace has the confidence to say, okay, well, that just sucked,

I'm back.

a cat to pity, that she's got strength.

By hissing at baby, Grace shows the only dose of confidence I've seen out of any

cats here.

So to me, that sets the stage for a relationship that's not as scarring as

other cats.

Last time I was here, you said that if Grace got it, then you would have to

start thinking about baby's future. Now you've seen it.

Do you still have that line in the sand?

No, I don't think so.

Do you?

I mean, I don't know if I'm still as worried. Maybe it's because Grace

fear him. She's not just a special needs cat.

She's a cat who could probably stand up for herself pretty well.

What was that? That's him trying to break down a door.

They're all upstairs right now.

Wait, so everybody right now can get at anybody right now? Yes. They're all out

right now. We just heard a hiss. Yeah.

Okay, John and Mary are telling me there's a fight about to happen. I got

upstairs and see what it is because I can't have baby hurting someone on my

watch anyway.

What is it that you're doing?

Problem here is...

They're all upstairs

right now.

What is it that you're doing?

Well, he's the only one up here.

Okay, so maybe that was just all him, that sound.

So everybody else is in the bedroom.

He is wanting in the bedroom, but you're hearing hisses and growls? No,

everybody else is downstairs. I'm sorry, everybody's downstairs.

You just heard hissing and growling. You assumed that that was baby torturing

everybody.

And everyone's down here.

John and Mary are assuming the worst because they're used to Baby holding the

other cats hostage, and the cats are hiding because Baby's behavior has

their confidence.

These are problems that need to be addressed.

I think that what we have to start doing is start guiding these guys to a better

life. Because Baby is part Napoleon cat and part bully. He just is kind of

having fun. This is his way of doing it. And Napoleon has an agenda.

Ownership. Overowning. A bully says, wait a minute, that toy is really fun.

squeaks and it runs.

I'm on it. I've also noticed that the attacks happen on the floor because

there's no place else for your cats to go.

So the first piece of homework that I have for you is to catify the place,

specifically things that are up.

will help, right?

Baby is overowning the floor, so let's create another lane of highway and give

the other cats in this home a vertical world where they can get away.

We also have to obliterate the crow's nest, okay?

A traffic circle up at crow's nest, I think, is the way to go.

Now, what I usually do is I'll take something just like this. I call it a

diffusion post.

The diffusion post makes it so that when animals are running at each other,

you're breaking up the momentum and they're forced to go around almost like

revolving door. The bottom line is no more power positions for a baby. It

no sense to give him that closeness, to give him that spot under the chair in

the dining room or any other checkmate position.

The next thing we're going to do is talk about the concept of play therapy.

Use play to draw them out. I want to see your scaredy cats attack something in

the middle of the floor because it's confidence that they can't get any other

way. I had a chance to play with Grace earlier in the day, and I got to see how

fearless this special needs cat really is. She let me pet her and really got

into play.

Good girl.

That's my baby girl. What I need to do is build up the confidence of the

in this house while draining the energy out of the bully. The goal is to get

these guys to meet in the middle somewhere. Then, hopefully, we have a

for a peaceful life together.

All right, guys. I will see you in just a few weeks. Bye.

Bye.

So I'm here for my next visit with Kira and her two cats, Daisy and Cooper.

The last time I was here, we were dealing with a mess. We had furniture

shredded. We had Cooper, who's got the beginnings of kidney disease, and he was

just not eating.

The cats were fighting, and Kira was so stressed out beyond belief. This time

around, look, if Cooper is eating, we're on the road to good things. How are

you? so much better yeah it's so gratifying to see cooper eating it's

heartwarming really good yeah and there's our girl daisy hello my baby

are you what i really want to do is start going through your your video

i put sticky paws

On the part of the box spring that the cats love to claw.

A consolation prize is a super cute cat bed with a

scratcher. Nice. All on the side of it.

This is all for the love of cats.

So the catification homework I was given by Jackson actually has been the most

challenging for me. I am so particular about what's in my house.

Big, crazy cat climbing devices are just not my cup of tea. But these are great,

and I want to do the best for my cat.

But I love that, though. I love that you're up high.

The glory of catification is giving cats the opportunity to own where they're

the most confident in the vertical world. This is a cat who normally is

around, just quiet.

That's what we wanted to see.

First day on wet food.

Made into a stew.

There we go.

Look at that.

I'm just going to pause right there, too. Both cats together, you're using

slow feeder bowl, which is great because you see Daisy just sort of having to

work her food a little bit so that she doesn't just go plowing through her food

and then go for his. And then he joins the party, which I'm sure you felt

pretty good about, right? Yeah. Yeah.

That was awesome. That's a nice one. The advice Jackson gave me has made a huge

difference. It is one of the most gratifying things to see Cooper finish a

of food. He is looking better. His fur looks better.

He's actually playing again. That's cool. This is a huge win, not just for

but Cooper needs to eat for his long -term health, and he's doing it. Now,

scratching -wise, how's it been going?

I have seen no new scratching.

I'm so happy. Have you been able to get rid of the whole closing the doors and

keeping everybody out? Are you able to open up the house a little bit more?

Since I saw you, I have kept all the doors in the house open. Free to roam.

They're not on top of each other. And Cooper and Daisy have been fighting a

less.

Fantastic. Here I had to take a leap of faith by opening the doors so the cats

have an opportunity to own everything.

This gives the cats an equal sense of ownership.

I mean, so far everything I'm hearing is beautiful.

I desperately want to weigh him. I want to make sure he hasn't lost more weight.

Where's your scale at?

I will grab it. Let's go find that.

In the meantime, I'm going to get on the floor because I know he's right here.

And we'll get this done.

Hi, buddy boy.

Hi. Here we go. Here we go.

Now, if you could, I know he's down there. You want to grab him, bring him

and then we'll stick him on here.

Now, just so I know, what was his last known weight?

Eight pounds, four ounces.

Okay. So anything above eight pounds, four ounces is a win.

Total win. All right, let's go.

It's okay, buddy. Come here, my love, my love. Okay, I'm just going to put you

on here. There we go, buddy.

And...

Come here, my love, my love. Okay, I'm just going to put you on here. There we

go, buddy. Just like that.

Nine pounds, two ounces.

He has gained about a pound since his low weight.

That means everything's working.

This is so good.

Cooper is going to be living with his kidney issues for the rest of his life.

You can't reverse that.

But you can live a much more vital, healthy life with it. And Cooper is now

up to live that life. Once a week, put him on that scale because we just want

stay current. In your cat?

But I'm psyched. My heart is this big right now. To see the proof that Cooper

gaining weight, that he's regaining his health as well as his confidence, man,

that feels good.

Before I leave you, I just want to make sure that you're good, that you're okay.

I'm so good. I can't thank you enough.

The constant stress is gone.

Good. Well, that's good. And on that note, I am going to leave you. Before

Jackson came, I was really panicked about Cooper.

I was feeling hopeless, like I was going to lose my cat. And now, getting a

handle on Cooper's kidney disease.

really changed everything.

I'm so much less stressed.

Daisy's behaving better. Cooper's happier.

And I think it's only going to get better.

I'm here at the Lake Bluff Public Library in Illinois.

In Illinois, and I'm here to meet up with Super Cat Volunteer Max and his

guardian, Kathy.

These guys are all over the place, and I finally get to meet up with them.

Kathy?

Hi, how are you? Kathy, I'm great. Good to meet you. Nice to meet you as well.

This looks like fun.

Yes. That's Max. That is Max. It's hard to miss him. The big Maine Coon there

with one ear.

Hi, I'm Kathy Mardini and my cat Max is part of the reading program at the Lake

West Library called Paws for a Tail.

The goal of this program is to encourage kids to read and also encourage kids

that might struggle reading.

And the idea is just read to the animal. Just read to the animal. Kids in grade

school or middle school can come and...

practice reading to the cats and dogs in the program.

Some kids are phenomenal readers. Other kids struggle a little more, and it

gives them that opportunity to sit down and read with an animal who doesn't

care. They just like the fact that they're hearing the human voice and

some attention that way. I think he can help you with this book if you'd like to

read. You want to try?

The river ran all the way through the Emerald Plain, and there was...

So much wildlife disease.

When kids first join the program, they're struggling a little. And in

had a little boy a couple of years ago that was reading to him and all of a

sudden became a phenomenal reader.

What's the story with Max's ear?

So Max was diagnosed with cancer. He had a mast cell tumor behind his ear and

one underneath his nose.

So we took him in for treatment. He had eight chemo treatments.

Max went through a pretty scary time. I mean, he had cancer that was in his ear.

But what has happened on the other side of that is that Max now looks a little

different from other cats. And he can also send that message to kids, that

different might mean being special. I mean, honestly, I'm just watching him.

hang out with these guys and he is so absolutely amazing like you know you can

rub his tummy you can do all these things that usually cats will let you

not to so it's a pretty he's an incredibly mellow cat i can see exactly

is such a perfect candidate for a program like this because he's so

and and so relatable the children feel open about reading to him max embodies

what i call the mojito cat i would imagine that you come in contact with a

of kids who are scared of cats Yes.

Max and the other animals in the program are trained.

So kids that aren't used to animals or are afraid of animals, it's really a

great opportunity for them to get some one -on -one attention.

There are so many levels to what makes this program important.

The first thing being that kids, to be able to read out loud without any fear

judgment, essential to their social development, and to feel like they can

without the fear of being bit or scratched, is huge in any child's life.

It hasn't stopped amazing me.

How great he does here.

And you meet a lot of cats. I meet a lot of cats. Kathy, it's great to meet you.

Great to meet you. Great to meet you, buddy. Keep it up. Yeah, thank you very

much. I hope that when people watch this story, they change their mind a little

bit about cats. That they realize, oh, cats aren't all afraid, running away

kids, wanting to be by themselves, independent, aloof.

That they crave.

Social situations, they crave attention, they love children. And Max is that

wonderful ambassador for all cats. Yeah, you want to pet him?

Baby!

I'm here for my third visit with John and Mary, the cat Baby, and all the

cats that Baby previously terrorized. And all I want to see is a catified

many lanes of traffic, and I'll be happy. That's not asking that much, is

I'm very excited to come back here, man.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

I've seen a lot of catification in my day, but this is what I'm talking about.

mean, I know that this is going to be amazing for all the cats, for baby, but

for the other ones especially.

And it looks nice. Come on. This is great.

Holy crow, you guys.

That makes me feel great. And it also tells me that you guys are going in the

right direction. Let's take a look at what we're doing here, video homework

-wise.

Yeah, baby.

Oh. Oh.

Wow. Good girl, Mae.

Wait, who was that down there? Was that Baby? That was Baby. Oh, God, I love

these moments. We have Mabel.

Baby. And he's doing what used to be checkmate.

He's blocking the stairs.

He's blocking her ability to get up and down, but no longer. And that's what

gives her confidence. Moving on.

Look at that. This is the traffic circle, the diffusion post in action. I

I'm going to go this way. Fine, I'll go this way then. Ginger doesn't even

respond.

Two babies look.

She goes, no, I can just walk right by. I can show you my tail as I go by. This

must have happened enough times that she is confident that she's not going to

get tackled.

Moving on.

I've been playing with baby a lot before feeding. I'm trying to channel Jackson.

I'm hoping I'm doing it correctly.

Uh -oh.

I'm trying to channel Jackson.

Uh -oh.

Everything can't be roses.

In terms of you channeling your Jackson, you need to run around a little bit.

You need to get yourself moving a little bit. Unless you tire the baby out, the

cat becomes an extension of a toy. Because they're moving better than

moving. In this house more than any other.

You have got to keep the stakes up during playtime. John and Mary are

there. They just need to drain baby's energy so he doesn't have the need to

and kill.

Hi.

How's it going?

We got our boy and our girl sitting out and watch.

Lily just walks by him and him watching but not chasing. So that's fantastic.

This was the crow's nest.

Not there anymore.

Exactly. What I was hoping for, the other cats have increased confidence

play, and now they can get away from Baby because of the catification.

They're not running, so Baby is not chasing them. He's taken control in a

wonderful way.

I've learned we're not necessarily changing Baby. It's the whole team

you know, including us.

and now we're paying attention to the details of the situation as opposed to

just reacting and kind of looking at it from a different perspective.

This has really been a life changer for us. It's worked.

Bye. Take care. Thank you.